Often, surfaces of substrates do not include desired performance characteristics. The failure to include specific desired performance characteristics can result in surface degradation in certain environments, an inability to meet certain performance requirements, or combinations thereof For example, in certain environments, metallic, glass, and ceramic surfaces can be subjected to wear and other undesirable surface activities such as chemical adsorption, catalytic activity, corrosive attack, oxidation, byproduct accumulation or stiction, and/or other undesirable surface activities.
Undesirable surface activities can cause chemisorption of other molecules, reversible and irreversible physisorption of other molecules, catalytic reactivity with other molecules, attack from foreign species, a molecular breakdown of the surface, physical loss of substrate or combinations thereof.
To provide certain desired performance characteristics, a silicon hydride surface and unsaturated hydrocarbon reagents can be reacted in the presence of a metal catalyst. Such processes suffer from the drawbacks that complete removal of this catalyst from the treated system is often difficult and the presence of the catalyst can reintroduce undesirable surface activity. Amorphous silicon-based chemical vapor deposition materials are also susceptible to dissolution by caustic high pH media, thereby limiting their use in such environments.
A coating may be applied to a surface to protect it from undesirable surface activities. One known method of depositing a coating on a surface is chemical vapor deposition (also commonly referred to as CVD). Generally, chemical vapor deposition deposits a solid material from a vapor under controlled atmospheric and temperature conditions for a predetermined time to form a coating. Chemical vapor deposition can include a primary treatment followed by functionalization (a surface reaction) to add predetermined molecules.
However, despite the prior use of chemical vapor deposition generally, molecules including silicon, carbon, and hydrogen have previously been considered undesirable for use as chemical vapor deposition precursors or have been applied in conjunction with other chemical vapor deposition precursors in the presence of additional depositional energies such as plasma and microwave fields. Thus, properties associated with such molecules have previously been unrealized through thermal chemical vapor deposition technology.
Furthermore, many known coatings do not provide adequate wear resistance which can lead to surface wear, which affects the operational life of the component on which the coating is applied. As operational environments are normally complex, it is desirable that coatings be formulated to prevent both the chemical and physical degradation to the surface of the component. An example of a component working in an aggressive environment is a drilling tool used in the oil and gas industry. The tool experiences high loads, high speeds and friction and, as a consequence high temperatures. Another example is components that are exposed to reciprocating wear between two surfaces. These factors can lead to surface wear of the components.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve current wear coatings that can overcome some or all of these and other drawbacks associated with known systems.